For Sale in China: Your iTunes Account

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About 50,000 hacked iTunes accounts linked to stolen credit cards
are being sold on a Chinese auction site.

Taobao.com – China’s version of eBay – is currently listing about
50,000 iTunes accounts for sale, China’s Global
Times discovered yesterday (Jan. 5). A bidder can purchase
$200 worth of music, movies and apps from Apple’s online store
for just 1 yuan to 200 yuan (15 cents to $30).

The
illegal iTunes transactions come with a stipulation: The
bidder must spend the iTunes credits within 24 hours of the
purchase.

The Global Times uncovered the fraud by wiring $5 to a seller on
taobao.com. The seller then provided the reporter with an iTunes
username and password. Once logged into iTunes, the
stolen credit card number appeared in the payment section of
the page, along with a billing address in the U.S.

So far only one person has admitted to selling the
hijacked accounts. The seller told the Global Times reporter,
"Of course these accounts are hacked, otherwise how could they be
so cheap."